Thawed
by R9KElias
Summary: It's been almost ten years. Ten full, cold and curious years since Elsa disappeared. And now she's back... and she's more spectacular than I remember. {Modern HighSchool AU, Elsanna but no incest.}
1. Chapter 1: Drawings & Trees

Chapter 1

Heels angrily dug into blue carpet as Anna paced about her room, clearly annoyed. It was the first day of a new semester. And as usual, she was unprepared and had no idea what to wear.

"Green and white flannel, skinny jeans and black Uggs? Ew, no..." The strawberry blonde continued to launch herself about the room dramatically as she mumbled outfit ideas to herself.

Finally, after what felt like forever, The junior decided to put on the first thing she set her eyes to; a dark red and white varsity jacket (complete with a maroon letter 'A'), some skinny jeans, black tank-top, and black converse. With a huff, the girl left her room and tossed her pajamas over the railing.

"Anna, come on! It's seven-twenty," her father warned, clearly impatient and ready to go.

Anna dashed into the bathroom at top speed before taking her brush in hand.

Anna let out a stifled groan as she realized she couldn't put her hair into braids... it would be too timely. After a second of hesitation, Anna let it cascade down her back in natural waves before taking off.

{ANNA POV SCHOOL}

"Anna! You have got to see the new kid!" Rapunzel bounded up to me in the junior hallway. Sometimes she reminds me of a chihuahua- she trembles in excitement over just about anything.

"Hottest guy ever?" I let out an annoyed sigh as my backpack started to slide off of my shoulder. Stupid combination locks...

"No way! Far from it. The guy's a gal. And, she's totally nasty. She got kicked out of her last two schools, and Eugene says that she's on parole." Rapunzel grinned. "Besides, everybody knows Kristoff is the hottest guy ever." She jabbed me in the side.

Finally, the backpack completely fell off of my shoulder. My box of pastels dumped out at my feet. "I wouldn't know." I grumbled and squatted to pick up my shattered pastels. "Kristoff is my brother, remember?"

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "He did ask about lunch, right?"

"Yeah" - I picked through the chalk bits- "he said, 'How's Rapunzel?' and I said, 'She's fine,' and then he gave me half of his turkey sandwich." I swear, if she had a disloyal bone in her body, I'd worry Rapunzel was only my friend to get close to my brother- like half the other girls in this school.

"Hurry up," she groaned, glancing over her shoulder.

"You could help." I waved a broken pastel at her. "I just bought these on my way back from the café."

Belle crouched and picked up a blue one. "What's with these anyway? I thought you were working with charcoal?"

"I can't get it to look right." I plucked the piece of chalk from her fingers and and stuck it back in the box. "I'm starting over."

"But it's due tomorrow."

"I can't turn it in if it doesn't look right."

"I don't think it looks that bad," Rapunzel stated. "Besides, the new chick seems to like it."

"What?"

Rapunzel bounced up and grabbed my arm. "Come on, you have to see this!" She sprang towards the art room, pulling me with her.

I clung to my pastels, "you are so weird."

Rapunzel laughed and quickened her pace.

"Here she comes," Belle called as we rounded the corner to the art department. A group of students congregated in front of the doorway. They parted to either side as we approached. Whispers resounded throughout the room, but I tried to ignore them.

"What's the big deal?" I asked.

Rapunzel pointed. "That is."

I stopped and stared at her. This girl more than pushed the limits of Arendelle's dress code in a spegetti-strap blue tank top and dark, skinny jeans, shredded and torn all about. Her messily-braided, platinum blonde hair hid her face, and she held a large sheet of paper in her pale hands. It was my charcoal drawing, and she was sitting in my seat.

I left the group of bystanders and strode up to the table. "Excuse me, you're in my spot."

"Then you must be Anna," she said without looking up. Something about her sharp voice made my arm hairs stand on end.

I stepped back. "How'd you know my name?"

She pointed at the masking tape name tag on the supply bucket I'd left out during lunch. "Anna Gold. What an interesting name. Precious, literally." She scoffed.

"What's your point?"

"Anna Gold, they must all expect great things from you."

"They do. Now move."

"This drawing is anything but great," she remarked. "You've got these branches all wrong, and that knot should be turned up, not down." She picked up one of my charcoals between her thin fingers and drew on the paper.

I was ticked off by her audacity, but what I couldn't believe was the ease with which she wove thick and thin black lines into striking charcoal branches. The same tree I've been agonizing over all week had just come to life on the paper. She used the side of her pinky to smudge the coal on the trunk- a "no-no" in Weselton's class, but the rough blending had just the right effect for the tree's bark. I watched her shade along the bottom of the branches, but then she began to fix the knot in the lowest one. How could she have known what that knot was supposed to look like?

"Stop it," I said. "That's mine. Give it back." I grabbed at the paper but she pulled it away. "Hand it over!"

"Kiss me," she said.

I heard Rapunzel yelp.

"What?" I questioned.

She leaned over the drawing. Her face was still obscured by her lengthy bangs, but a blue quartz necklace slipped out of her shirt. "Kiss me, and I'll give it back."

I grabbed her hand that held the charcoal. "Who do you think you are?"

A beat. "So you don't recognize me?" She looked up and brushed her hair back, clearing it from her face. Her cheeks were red and her face pale, but it was her eyes that made me gasp. They were the same bright ones I used to call, "sheets of ice."

"...Elsa?"


	2. Chapter 2: Rain Check

"There we go," Elsa hummed contently before setting the pencil and paper down. Her lips curled in a mischievous smirk.

She thought this was funny...

She thought this was amusing...

Damn, was she wrong.

"Long time, no see."

"No kidding, where the hell have you been?"

"Nowhere."

"Nowhere? Elsa, it's been ten yea-"

My chiding was cut short by the clearing of Weasel-town's throat.

"Excuse me, and who might you be?" He asked. Though his tone was light, I could tell that he was about to bubble over from the inside.

"I'm Elsa. Senior."

Weselton's brows rose as if he were surprised. "Elsa?" He scoffed, "well, miss Elsa. We have rules in this class believe it or not. And you happen to be breaking several." A boney finger pointed to the door, "office, now."

Elsa smirked at me before strutting to the door.

"See ya around, Anna."

}{

After Elsa left, the class day went on normally... Well, seemingly for everyone except me.

Elsa was on my mind unlike anything else had ever been. I couldn't comprehend that she was back. Actually, I couldn't comprehend WHY she was back. So, when I got the chance during passing period, I asked. (More like demanded.)

"Why are you here?" My voice was laced with the same bossy tone I was made fun of for as a kid. She quirked a brow.

"What, I can't go to school?"

I ignored her snarky reply.

"Why are you here," I gritted my teeth, "now?"

Elsa grinned at the clarification and leaned against a locker.

"I want to get into an art collage. To be honest, the only class I'm really attending is your CAPP Art class."

CAPP Art was directly linked with Corona, one of the top Art Schools in the state. If you passed CAPP with an A, you would be good to go.

"Well, with the work you did on my picture today," I feigned being annoyed, "I think you'll do fine."

Elsa laughed.

"Only if Weselton keeps me in class."

That's right, I almost forgot. CAPP Art is for the most advanced artists in the school, and is treated as such. The rules are extremely strict- and with Elsa's miff-up today, I'm willing to bet she'll be kicked out. Lucky for her, I am one of his top students. Something she probably knew.

I sighed. "I'll talk to him for you." Before she had a chance to say anything more, I asked what had been on my mind for a while.

"While we are on the topic of art, how did you do that with my picture?"

Elsa shrugged, "depends on what you mean in particular."

"You fixed my tree, perfectly, too. How did you-" she cut me off.

"That was my tree too, remember? Unlike you, I have a decent memory."

I scoffed.

"After school, meet me by it." Elsa demanded. Her eyes were cold even though her personality seemed warm.

I nodded blankly.

}{

"Anna!" A voice called to me from the end of the hallway. I turned to look in the direction of which it came and spotted a familiar ginger.

Hans.

Hans was easily one of the most popular guys in school. This was not hard to believe at all. He had a perfectly chiseled chin, bright emerald eyes, and what appeared to be the softest lips in existence. Yeah, I'll admit it, I have a crush on him.

I could feel the smile spreading on my face as I answered him, "oh, hey!"

He shot me one of his "triple-threat" smiles. Hot, smart, and sweet- all the things a girl looked for. A triple-threat.  
"I was wondering if you would like to go bowling with me today?" A date? Hans Westergaard was asking me out on a date?

"Sure-" I started to accept, but remembered my previous engagement with Elsa. Shit.

"Oh, shoot. I'm sorry, I'll have to take a rain check. Okay?" I brought my hand through my strawberry-blonde bangs.

"Um, yeah. Sure- that's fine."

"Thanks."

He started to turn around, but pointed to me before his face was lost. "I'll hold you to that rain check, Gold."

I only laughed in response.

{HOURS LATER}

"What do you see?" She asked. I willed myself to look down. I gazed out across the neighborhood- a bird's-eye view of the world. Through the branches, I could see the tops of houses; the smoke coming out of the Anderson's chimney. Kids were playing street hockey in the cul-de-sac where Hans, Elsa and I used to run with our light sabers. Where Elsa, after much bossing on my part, taught me how to build snowmen. I looked up. Tree branches swayed above me, dancing in the blue, cloud-spotted sky.

"I see everything," I breathed, "I see-"

"Don't tell me. Show me." She pulled my sketch pad out of her shirt. "Draw what you see." She tried to hand me my things.

"From up here?" I was still hugging my tree branch. How did she expect me to be able to draw anything without falling? "I can't."

"Stop worrying." Elsa leaned against the trunk.

"Come here."

I slowly edged over to her. She helped me sit in front of her and then handed me my things. I leaned my head back against her chest, and she wrapped her hands around my waist.

"Draw," she said, "I'll hold you until you're done."

I put the charcoal pencil to the paper. I hesitated for a moment. What was it I wanted to draw? I looked out across the yard in the other direction. From here, most of my Craftsman-style house was obscured by branches, but it looked like it had when I sat up here as a kid. Not patched and old, but solid, inviting, and safe. My hand started moving, drawing what I saw. Glimpses of my childhood home from my perch in the walnut tree.

"Good," Elsa said as she watched my progress. She stayed mostly silent except to point out something here and there. "See how the sun glints off the wind vane? Draw the dark, not the light itself."

I drew, letting charcoal lines flow right out of me until my hand felt cramped and tired. I stopped to stretch, and Elsa pulled the sketch pad off my lap.

"It's good, real good." She nuzzled her nose against the top of my head. "You should do this in oils."

"Yeesh." I leaned forward.

Elsa trailed her fingers down my spine. "Still not a fan?"

"I haven't tried oils in years." Not since the day her mother took her away.

"You'll never get into a place like Corona if you don't get a hang of it."

"I know, Weselton's been after me all year about that."

"It wouldn't be the same there without you."

I scooted away from her and dangled my legs along the sides of the branch. Elsa thought about us together at college? It felt weird to think about the future- our future- when so many things were happening. What were we doing here anyway? We'd held hands, brushed skin, talked into the late hours of the night. But what did any of this mean? What could it mean?

"You never did show me that technique with linseed oil and varnish," I cooed. It was the "trick" she promised to teach me just before she'd left with her mom.

Elsa cleared her throat and pulled herself to her feet.

"You remember that?"

"I tried to forget," I admitted. "I tried to forget everything about you."

"You hated me that much?"

"No." I grabbed a branch and pulled myself up, my back still to her. "I missed you that much."

"Anna..."

{LATER THAT NIGHT}

"Anna!" Gerda bellowed from the front room. I came in from the kitchen. She was sprawled across the couch, watching TV.

"What?"

"Phone." She shook the cordless over her head. I grabbed it from her and was about to put it to my ear when I noticed a bunch of... Trolls? On the TV screen. It seemed to be a documentary. I covered the receiver. "What in the world are you watching?"

"A mythology documentary for school. It's actually pretty neat."

I hummed in understanding, not ripping my eyes from the screen.

"Anna."

"What?"

"Don't forget about the love of your life."

Gerda pointed at the phone.

"Oh." I knew that she was teasing, but I still wondered if I could ever call Elsa something like that. I walked into the kitchen. "Hello?" I asked into the phone.

"Anna!" It wasn't Elsa.

"Oh hey, Hans. What's up?"

"I'm calling in my rain check."

"Rain check?"

"For bowling. You still owe me a date."

I could tell by the sound of his voice he was using his "triple threat" smile.

"For tonight?"

"Yeah, we're doubling Kristoff and Belle," he said, like the date was already set in stone. "Dinner, bowling, then a party at Gaston's."

"Oh."

I wondered if I should go. Not for Hans's sake, but for Kristoff's. I hadn't talked to him since the night before. The fact that he even wanted to go out and have fun was a good, but surprising, sign.

"I'm sorry, but I have plans for tonight."

"Then change them." Hans suggested.

"I can't." I tried to sound apologetic. "I've got to go. I'll see you at school, okay?"

"Yeah. Okay." His voice sounded hard. No smile at all.

}{}{}{

Authors Note:

Hey, look at that! You made it passed chapter two! Thank you for reading, and I truly hope you like it so far! If you do, please leave a review! See you tomorrow! *doki doki*


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